Ex Occidente Press

[qcrisp]

Quote

Any chance of somewhere like Centipede Press picking up the contents of your earlier volumes for a massive collection?

Do you know, I hadn't thought of Centipede Press. Thank you for the tip.

[qcrisp]

I don't know if anyone's seen this yet:

YouTube - Book review: The Nightfarers by Mark Valentine

MIght be of interest.

[Robin Davies]

Interesting, but frustrating! I ordered The Nightfarers on the 12th of August and I'm still waiting. Ex Occidente have a mouthwatering list of books but I wish their service was a bit quicker.
Good to hear that All Gods Angels, Beware! is a bit nearer publication though. That's the one I'm really looking forward to.

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by Robin Davies

Interesting, but frustrating! I ordered The Nightfarers on the 12th of August and I'm still waiting. Ex Occidente have a mouthwatering list of books but I wish their service was a bit quicker. Good to hear that All Gods Angels, Beware! is a bit nearer publication though. That's the one I'm really looking forward to.

I think someone mentioned somewhere in this thread how long these things should take to arrive, but I can't remember. If it takes too long, it can't hurt to send an e-mail and ask.

There are currently some agonising choices to be made over which stories are included in All God's Angels, Beware! I hope that the right choices are made. I've been holding back giving 'final information' here and elsewhere, because I'm not sure yet myself, but, well, I just hope that the collection turns out to be worth it, because I know that those who have pre-ordered have been waiting a long time, and I know also that it's not cheap.

In any case, both I and the publisher are agreed that it is set to be better than Morbid Tales.

So, thank you for your patience, and so on.

[Evans]

Quote Originally Posted by Robin Davies

Interesting, but frustrating! I ordered The Nightfarers on the 12th of August and I'm still waiting. Ex Occidente have a mouthwatering list of books but I wish their service was a bit quicker. Good to hear that All Gods Angels, Beware! is a bit nearer publication though. That's the one I'm really looking forward to.

I feel for you. I ordered Madder Mysteries on the 30th of June. Don't quote me on this but I think there may have been some misunderstanding with the printer in the summer

[DocGriffinStone]

Quote Originally Posted by Robin Davies

Interesting, but frustrating! I ordered The Nightfarers on the 12th of August and I'm still waiting. Ex Occidente have a mouthwatering list of books but I wish their service was a bit quicker. Good to hear that All Gods Angels, Beware! is a bit nearer publication though. That's the one I'm really looking forward to.

August, why that was practically yesterday.

I ordered 2 books from Ex Occidente back on March 31 (Madder Mysteries by Reggie Oliver and The Horrifying Presence by Jean Ray). In May I received the Jean Ray book sent in an envelope, and it was in rough shape. And there was no Reggie Oliver book was in the package.

I wrote to Dan, who said that he must have sent my package to the wrong person, and would send out the correct package.

A few weeks turned into 4 months, and I wrote back, and Dan said that he would send out the books DHL even though it would cost him $100 if I wanted since he thought it was important that I get the books. He also wrote that he would send me a couple of books for free for all my trouble.

Well Dan sends the books registered mail instead of DHL (which is fine) except that he doesn't include the Jean Ray book nor the Reggie Oliver book, he just sends the "gift" books.

I wrote back, and he said that it wasn't an oversight, rather he just wanted to make sure that it was a safe way to send the books via registered mail.

So I write back a few times and after another month, he writes and says that he sent my package out priority mail (as opposed to registered).

Well the package arrived today, and only included the Reggie Oliver book (and not the replacement for the damaged Jean Ray book).

It should have been a fairly easy thing for Dan to send out 2 books back in May or June, instead it has turned into a 5 and 1/2 month exercise in frustration, and I still haven't received the replacement Jean Ray book that he said that he was going to send out back in May.

If anyone is in a similar situation in the US, you might want to open a PayPal dispute before the 45 day window is closed, which seems like a nasty thing to say, since Dan is always so polite. But I suspect that if I had done so myself, instead of taking Dan at his word, the situation would have been resolved by now. After the 45 day window, you are at the mercy of Dan actually following through.

Best,
Trev

[Evans]

Quote Originally Posted by DocGriffinStone

I wrote to Dan, who said that he must have sent my package to the wrong person, and would send out the correct package. A few weeks turned into 4 months, and I wrote back, and Dan said that he would send out the books DHL even though it would cost him $100 if I wanted since he thought it was important that I get the books. He also wrote that he would send me a couple of books for free for all my trouble.

Any chance you could pm me his mailing adress?

[Russell Nash]

Quote Originally Posted by DocGriffinStone

In May I received the Jean Ray book sent in an envelope, and it was in rough shape. Well the package arrived today, and only included the Reggie Oliver book (and not the replacement for the damaged Jean Ray book).

I believe that I was one of the first people to order Jean Ray's book, but who knows. My copy wasn't in perfect condition either. Having this book a print run of 300 copies, I knew that Dan was not going to replace it. You get what you get. If I was worried about the quality of this book to resale it in the near future, well, I made a bad investment. However, I bought it for me, to read it. Although, in not a perfect condition, I celebrate that Ex-Occidente Press helps to promote Jean Ray's books, and by many others, that, otherwise, would be forever unknown. I'm not taking sides, but, if you got your copy, at least, you got one of 300.

[The New Nonsense]

Stories like these are very unfortunate. Perhaps Dan shouldn't allow pre-orders until the books are actually printed and in his hands, or at least close to it. This would avoid unnecessarily long waits for his customers. Though I know there are other publishers (I won't name names) who pay for the book's publication with the money received from pre-orders. If they don't get enough pre-orders, they cancel the book.

He seems to have fixed the shoddy packaging problem. My last order was very well padded. Now it seems he needs to work on a bit of follow-through. Personally, I would rather have just a handful of titles per year that are printed and sent off promptly than dozens left in limbo resulting in unhappy customers. Now, I don't know much about the publishing industry, so I'm coming at it from an outsider's perspective, but perhaps he's taken on a bit more than he can handle? The press isn't even a year old yet, and already he has 7 books in print, 11 books available for pre-order, and 11 more in the works. That's a LOT for a small press, perhaps too much too soon?

I brokered a deal with Dan which means I'll receive extra gratis copies of my book ["Tenebrous Tales"] rather than payment, books which will presumably be sent in one large package or parcel.

In the unlikely event that any TLO members were thinking of purchasing a copy they are perfectly welcome to procure one from me direct since that may help alleviate the postage issues as highlighted in this thread.

However, I won't have many spare copies because most of them are already spoken for, even though I am not wasting time or money sending gratis copies to the various awards bodies. Who are they to judge any of us anyway? They haven't earned the right. I'm far more interested in the verdicts of Joe Boyd [Nick Drake's former manager, both of whom are fictionalised in the opening novella], Peter Murphy [Bauhaus frontman, a fan of supernatural gothic] and Barry Humphries [an aficiando with an extremely sharp critical eye and a deep interest in vintage weird fiction].

Tenebrous Tales has been delayed until October which gives me time to finish a new story which would not have otherwise appeared. It's about a BBC film crew who are shooting an M R James documentary on location at James' childhood home [Great Livermere in Suffolk]. Tedious trivia I am sure, but I was unable to finish it because I hit writer's block right at the end. Last week I emailed it over to Reggie Oliver asking for help and he suggested a simple yet perfect solution, so the collection will be featuring one new extra unlisted tale.

Christopher Barker
PS. Yes, I know that a dozen or so of you are waiting for copies of Reggie Oliver's VITTORINI. As promised, they will be sent out this week to arrive next week [UK] or the week after [Europe and USA]. Apple-ogies to all. Life has been.....well, exhausting.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE